oh ya... I try to listen to NPR but honestly, I usually only catch it when they have some COMPLETELY boring and uninspiring show on about nothing.

I definitely lean right, however I don't like to consider myself Republican, actually I don't like any party out there. I do enjoy most AM radio from Hanity to O'Reily to Alan Colms, but Glenn Beck is my favorite. That said I rarely 100% agree with any of them, but that would be impossible to do anyway.

And I've heard/read plenty of things that make me believe that the Kerry would be the worst thing to ever happen to our country. Al Gore is now proving WHY he did not deserve to be our President as well. We dodged the perverbial bullet there! The second thing that crossed my mind on 911 was how lucky we were that Gore did not win that election!

And it's sad to see that many ppl don't understand how important it is to not only our country but stability in the middle east in general that we took out Saddam. The reason 911 happened was that we did nothing until it was too late.

I read yahoo news which is basically AP, reuters and some newspaper articles.

I absolutely hate fox and about every other show on CNN. MSNBC is IMO as even as it gets. Fox really isn't a news station because it is all opinion. CNN offers news but sometimes it does exactly what Fox does-offers opinions and not news.

I dislike Bill O'reily and his style immensly.

When did reporting the news mean having two opposing views talking about one issue? Thats not news because no one learns anything.

Bush didn't to anything productive to avenge us or make us safer after 9/11. Sure he went into Afghanistan and found a couple al Qaeda members. If he really wanted to avenge us or make us safer, why did he send so few troops there to search for bin Laden, who is still at large?

But he then shifted gears completely to focus on Iraq and Saddam -- who didn't even have the power or the means to bother surrounding countries, let alone us.

Another point that bother me to no end is people saying Gore would have done worse. The fact is, we DON'T KNOW that. It's all speculation. I cetrainly don't think he was prime presidential material, but I have a feeling his actions and motivations wouldn't have had big business, money, and greed written all over them.

Face it, war is good business for a lot of people with friends in high places.

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"I wish I had documented more…" said nobody on their death bed, ever.

pmb, I think that is a seriously flawed view of US foreign policy. Even when used to interpret US motivations in Vietnam, it doesn't hold water.

To assert that Bush's motivations, post 9-11 - after an attack on US soil that killed more Americans than the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor - have been based on a desire to enrich corporate America, is absurd. Conservatives are often accused of being simple-minded, but to view the actions of Bush's administration through the "corporate greed paradigm", forsaking all other evidence, is the epitome of simple-mindedness.

Bush's career will be over in 1-5 years. His only motivation, other than doing what he thinks is best for America, is likely, "What will my legacy be in the annals of American history?"

Take a step back, consider the BS those hippies have been feeding y'all up there, and think things through. We have enemies that mean us harm, have done us harm. At what point is it OK to fight back? Afghanistan was a resounding success, but the hippies railed against that action, as well.

And Iraq is neither a quagmire nor a disaster, no matter how many times media members declare it to be so. The military kicked some serious booty, in a hurry, and did so with too few soldiers.

The enemy that remains, since the close of open hostilities has generally coordinated one attack a day. Why? So that our idiot left-leaning media has something to report, some fire and blood and carnage to plaster on everybody's TVs each night.

I'm voting Bush, but even if Kerry wins, the mission to protect America from future attacks will continue. Everybody who has watched developments in the Middle East for the last 30 years, knows that to do nothing will be certain disaster for us.

And Osama's likely to be found in Pakistan, protected by anti-American fanatics. That the gov't of Pakistan is so unstable as to be unwilling to capture him (yet tenuously possesses atomic weapons) is more than a little disconcerting. Iran is continuing with their nuclear weapons program. It ain't a pretty picture that's shaping up.

I'm afraid that in some years from now the 900 brave souls we've lost in Iraq will seem very few compared to the number lost to acts of terrorism here in our own country. If Osama (or any of those other nuts) had a nuke would he have used it? Of course. What plan do you feel be best for preventing terrorists from obtaining WMD or from using them against us? I think that some of the folks in your neck of the woods WANT us to get attacked (including my unabashedly communist sister in the Redwood Empire ), want int'l trade to stop, want the domestic economy to stop, and have all of us go back to hunting, gathering and using seashells for currency.

I forgot one other source of info - the men and women who come home from Iraq. What are they saying about our efforts in Iraq? Don't hear many of their comments on the news, do you?

I'm glad we finally have a thread for this as I don't have to feel guilty for ranting.

BigWill, you took my hastily added closing statement and disregarded the rest of my argument. Sure, I know Bush has more than just money in mind. After all, he's a citizen too and doesn't want the country to be attacked any more than you or I do. Nobody really wants to go back to hunting, gathering, and seashells.

But why is it that his policies and tax cuts result in the tossing of nickles at the feet of us middle class folk while the top 1% get billions and billions? I am a firm believer in the "everyone does better when EVERYONE does better" idea as being a guiding principle of government. That includes healthcare, jobs, a better-regulated welfare system, not bombing foreign countries and killing innocent civilians, working with the international community on issues of international concern, etc.

The best way to enjoy safety is not to give people reasons to hate us. I guarantee you the foreign policy of this country, as of late, has gotten us more enemies than admirers. We are not safer; our enemies are just harder to count.

Oh, and for someone leaning far to the right, the middle -- relatively speaking -- looks like it's left-leaning. The same can be spoken of left-leaners, of course. Don't be so quick to toss people into one bin or the other.

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"I wish I had documented more…" said nobody on their death bed, ever.

Unfortunately, I hurt my back a couple of days ago while working in the yard and I'm having a hard time sitting in this chair - so I must be brief.

It seems like the biggest issues down here in soCal are race and class. Minorities are always finding white racism to be at the core of all conlicts, while the poor white folks are always finding economic disparity to be the source of society's ills.

A while back one of our Canadian friends pointed out that Thomas Jefferson borrowed heavily from John Locke and others in writing the Declaration of Independence. Where Jefferson wrote, "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Locke had, "...life, liberty and property." The United States is a capitalist country and has a representative, democratically elected gov't.

If 90% of the people agree to take the wealth of the other 10%, that is not democracy. That is stealing - mob rule. If you don't like being poor (I've accepted it ) then invest in yourself and do something about it. Bill Cosby's recent rant should have been delivered to all of us not just the black community.

But why is it that his policies and tax cuts result in the tossing of nickles at the feet of us middle class folk while the top 1% get billions and billions?

A) I'm extremely middle class, I felt that I got a decent amount of money back from the gov. Want to know why the economy is recovering? Even if the middle class only got a few hundred dollars back, can you think of any of them that put it into savings? Hell no! We all went out and spent that extra money on something, which in turn fed the economy. Couple that with low interest rates and its pure genius (Reganonmics > all).

B) Ever stop to think that when the so called *rich* ppl seem to get back more perhaps its because they are taxed for more to begin with?

We need a damn FLAT tax in this country. Just because someone makes 6+ figures doesn't mean they deserve to be taxed at a higher rate. Furthermore, if you want to whine about how the *rich* tax evade behind deductions and such, well a flat tax would end all of that.

If you want socialistic polices please by all means move. There are plenty of other countrys out there for you. I for one would like to see this one remain based on capitalism. Every able bodied citizan needs to take care of their own damn self! NO HANDOUTS!

To be fair, I believe in smaller gov and thats one thing Bush hasn't been able to acomplish. He is by no means perfect, but he's the best we got right now, and overall I think he's done a pretty good job.